MeaLee Thomas shines through her poetry in a way that is unapologetic and vulnerable; she doesnt hold anything back. She tells her story like two childhood friends catching up on lost time. If you didnt know her before, you will know her after reading her poetry. -MaryCae Vignolini, Poet & Photographer

the BLK love mixtape is an anthology of contemporary literature dedicated to the BLK woman.We created this body of work to uplift HER and to teach young BLK men how to identify love based on our examples so that they may love her most carefully.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—dazzling, poignant, and lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive power of art. This stunning, exquisitely written collection introduces a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking. A 1930s Soviet censor painstakingly corrects offending photographs, deep underneath Leningrad, bewitched by the image of a disgraced prima ballerina. A chorus of women recount their stories and those of their grandmothers, former gulag prisoners who settled their Siberian mining town. Two pairs of brothers share a fierce, protective love. Young men across the former USSR face violence at home and in the military. And great sacrifices are made in the name of an oil landscape unremarkable except for the almost incomprehensibly peaceful past it depicts. In stunning prose, with rich character portraits and a sense of history reverberating into the present, The Tsar of Love and Techno is a captivating work from one of our greatest new talents.

"In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality by inhabiting both sides of the binary and arriving precisely somewhere in the middle." —O, The Oprah Magazine “HOT” (Maggie Nelson) • “TIGHT” (Eileen Myles) • “DEEP” (Michelle Tea) It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

Once upon a time I was falling apart. Now I'm always falling in love. Pick up the microphone. When Rob Sheffield moved to New York City in the summer of 2001, he was a young widower trying to start a new life in a new town. Behind, in the past, was his life as a happily married rock critic, with a wife he adored, and a massive collection of mix tapes that captured their life together. And then, in a flash, all he had left were the tapes. Beyoncé , Bowie, Bon Jovi, Benatar . . . One night, some friends dragged him to a karaoke bar in the West Village. A night out was a rare occasion for Rob back then. Turn around Somehow, that night in a karaoke bar turned into many nights, in many karaoke bars. Karaoke became a way out, a way to escape the past, a way to be someone else if only for the span of a three-minute song. Discovering the sublime ridiculousness of karaoke, despite the fact that he couldn't carry a tune, he began to find his voice. Turn around And then the unexpected happened. A voice on the radio got Rob's attention. The voice came attached to a woman who was unlike anyone he'd ever met before. A woman who could name every constellation in the sky, and every Depeche Mode B side. A woman who could belt out a mean Bonnie Tyler. Bright Eyes Turn Around Bright Eyes is an emotional journey of hilarity and heartbreak with a karaoke soundtrack. It's a story about finding the courage to move on, clearing your throat, and letting it rip. It's a story about navi- gating your way through adult romance. And it's a story about how songs get tangled up in our deepest emotions, evoking memories of the past while inspiring hope for the future.

An art form combining the skills of a DJ with the intimacy of a letter, a good mixtape was the ultimate audio valentine. Today, when the iPod and playlists reign supreme, the cassette has been rendered obsolete, and the art of crafting these sonic calling cards has been relegated to back-of-the-closet, thirty-something nostalgia. Now, thanks to Jason Bitner, we can relive our lost youth and lost loves. In Cassette from My Ex, sixty noted writers and musicians wax poetic about their own experiences with these charming artifacts and the relationships that inspired them. Contributors include: Maxim editor Joe Levy Author Rick Moody Former Rolling Stone writer and MTV2 veejay Jancee Dunn The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson Stories range from the irreverently sweet, such as the doomed love affair between a Deadhead and a Goth, to the touching, such as the heartbreaking discovery of a former love passing away. Everyone will find a story or a song to relate to. Just hit play.

Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation tells the story of the mixtape from its history in 1970s bootlegging to its resurgence as an icon of nostalgic analog technology. Burns looks at the history of the mixtape from the early 1980s and the rise of the cassette as a fundamental aspect of the music industry. Stories from music fans collecting hip hop mixtapes in the Bronx or recording songs off the radio permeate the book. She discusses the continued contemporary appeal of the mixtape as musicians, novelists, memoirists, playwrights, and even podcasters have used it as a metaphor for connection and identity. From Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape to Questlove’s Mixtape Potluck Cookbook, Burns analyzes how the mixtape can function as a plot point, a stand-in for emotional connection, or an organizing structure. The book shows how creators use the iconography of the mixtape cassette to create ephemera, from coffee subscriptions to board games, which speaks to the appreciation of the tangible and the analog. The desire to find connection through sharing a physical artifact permeates the various creative uses of the mixtape. From blockbuster films like Guardians of the Galaxy to mixtape throw pillows, Burns highlights the mixtape as a site of collective memory tied to youth culture, community identity, and sharing music.

'A lovely novel, delicately drawn, with characters that really linger in the mind . . . I got really swept up in it.' Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us You never forget the one that got away. Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape. But that was years ago and Ali hasn't thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him 'the one that got away'; after all, she'd been the one to run. Then Dan's name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past. For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is sixteen in Sheffield, dancing in her skin-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind. And so begins a new mix tape. Ali and Dan exchange songs - some new, some old - across oceans and time zones, across a lifetime of different experiences, until one of them breaks the rules and sends a message that will change everything... __________ PRAISE FOR MIX TAPE: 'Gorgeous novel about first love . . . guaranteed to make you think of your first love - and perhaps what might have been' Nina Pottell, Prima 'This grown-up love story is gorgeously written and romantic without being sentimental' Good Housekeeping 'Deftly written romantic novel' Red 'Touching, peppily nostalgic love story' Sainsbury's Magazine 'Funny, moving, relatable' Heat 'Fantastic, moving, beautiful novel' Daily Mail 'This tender tale of second chances...is a nostalgic delight' Sunday Mirror 'A brilliantly nostalgic story, with a great sound track' Best Magazine

By turns tender and punk-tough, Shine of the Ever is a literary mixtape of queer voices out of 1990s Portland. This collection of short stories explores what binds a community of queer and trans people as they negotiate love, screwing up and learning to forgive themselves for being young and sometimes foolish.